Word: hanswurst
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...opera takes place in a small Austrian village in the middle of the eighteenth century. Hanswurst, a chimney-sweep, is madly in love with Columbina, whose father is Odario, the town money-grubber. Odario tries to wed his daughter to the richest man he can find, and he picks priggish Fleandar, a wig-curler in the guise of a nobleman. From there on, the plot takes every traditional turn imaginable, with ghosts peering from balconies and men dressed as women. By the end, of course, the good Hanswurst gains the hand of the sweet Columbina, Odario wins the coveted Stone...
...cast's performance is the ribaldry Schwartz has injected. The greatest ham, and consequently the most enjoyable performer, is Walter Swap, who plays Hanswurst. He cavorts in five different disguises, and his impersonation of a crackly-voiced beggar woman in "I Beg of You" nearly steals the show. Sandra Robbins, as Columbina, sings the eighteenth century melodies beautifully, if a bit too softly, but she has trouble warming to the sex-ridden requirements of the twentieth-century script...
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